Rolling into town with a whole lot of baggage in tow, the ill-fated Natalie Portman western Jane Got a Gun is not quite the calamity that some may have feared. But this slow-burn and rather heavy-handed affair — capably helmed by Gavin O’Connor, who took over after director Lynne Ramsay never showed up for the first day of shooting — does not really bring enough excitement to such a well-tread genre, even if the idea of centering its story around a woman under siege gives the film a certain novelty factor.
With Portman both producing and starring as the titular gunslinger (though she’s not exactly Annie Oakley and only draws her gun a few times), and co-writer Joel Edgerton as a former lover forced to protect the lady who broke his heart, this flashback-filled thriller takes a bunch of familiar Old West archetypes and tries to shuffle them around in an unfamiliar way. The result is an intensely performed if somewhat drab four-hander (or six-shooter) that will have a hard time hitting its theatrical target when The Weinstein Company releases the film stateside this Friday, though its star firepower could give it a boost both overseas and on the small screen.
The film was slated to shoot in March 2013 when Scottish auteur Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin, Ratcatcher) failed to show up on day one of production, throwing Portman’s independently financed picture into turmoil and causing co-star Jude Law to jump ship (he had already replaced Bradley Cooper, who exited earlier). A substitute director was quickly found in O’Connor (Pride and Glory, the superb and underrated Warrior), who brought in Edgerton and Ewan McGregor to respectively play Jane’s ex-fiancé and major foe, with cameras rolling a few months later.
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